Buffy The Vampire Slayer: 5 Times We Felt Bad For Jonathan (& 5 Times We Hated Him)

Jonathan Levinson was a bit of an odd character on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. During the second and third seasons, he was more of a background player; always there but never part of the main storyline. He eventually had a pivotal role near the end of Season 3 in the episode “Earshot.”

After that, Jonathan became a Buffy mainstay, appearing in the fourth, sixth and final seasons of the show. While he was essentially a decent person, Jonathan was hurt a lot by his peers and his friends. However, he also gave as good as he got, which caused him to appear slightly antagonistic on occasion. For every sympathetic moment he had, Jonathan had an unsavory one.

10 Felt Bad: Cast A Spell So He Could Have Friends

Jonathan was never the most popular guy in high school. In fact, no one really knew that he even existed. He was just there. This effect was achieved by having Jonathan appear in multiple episodes but playing no part in the plot.

He was incredibly lonely and so in Season 4, he cast a spell to make him the most popular guy in Sunnydale. He was was confident, charismatic and cool, but there was a side effect to this magic. It was sad that Jonathan had to go to those lengths to make himself feel as though he mattered.

9 Hated: Targeted Buffy After She Was Resurrected

Buffy Summers had an incredibly hard time adjusting to life again after being brought back from the dead in Season 6. When she died in the Season 5 finale, she had finally found peace, but Willow’s resurrection spell ripped her out of heaven and back to reality.

In fairness, Jonathan didn’t know how much Buffy was struggling, but the fact that he and the other members of the Trio chose to mess with her as she was trying to get her life back together was just cruel, spiteful, and childish.

8 Felt Bad: When Warren And Andrew Betrayed Him

Jonathan didn’t possess many friends in high school, which is why viewers were surprised to see him with Warren Mears and Andrew Wells in Season 6. Although they were villains, their little gang allowed these outsiders to finally have someone to talk to.

However, as the season progressed, the Trio became darker. Warren’s misogynistic personality began to bubble to the surface, and Andrew’s infatuation with him grew in proportion. This lead the two of them to betray Jonathan, leaving the latter with no friends yet again.

7 Hated: Willing To Sexually Assault Women

This might just have been all talk, but Jonathan and the Trio took a turn for the worse when they invented a mind-control device. Even before Warren used it on his ex-girlfriend, Jonathan still expressed an interest in forcing bewitched women to have sex with him.

This idea was so gross and completely disgusting. Jonathan was never a bad guy and to hear him describe what he’d use the mind-control device for was just utterly horrific. This was the first time the Trio got into Jonathan’s head and corrupted him.

6 Felt Bad: Hunted Down By Dark Willow

Jonathan was easily the most likable out of the Trio, but that really isn’t saying much. By the time Season 6 reached its end, the Trio was no more. Warren had killed Tara, and Willow had killed him in revenge. She then went after the others.

Although Jonathan and Andrew didn’t play any part in Tara’s death, Willow’s quest for vengeance had driven her over the edge. For his part, Jonathan was all for owning up to his actions and even stopped Andrew when he threatened Xander.

5 Hated: Left Buffy And Dawn To Die

Even though Jonathan was willing to face punishment for his actions, it was quite disappointing when he abandoned Buffy and Dawn to save his own skin. Willow had become even more powerful and she had sent a fireball to kill Jonathan and Andrew.

While everyone escaped, Buffy and Dawn were trapped underground. Jonathan could have stayed and helped, redeeming himself slightly, but he chose to run with Andrew. After everything Buffy and the Scoobies had done for him, this was incredibly selfish.

4 Felt Bad: Almost Killed Himself

Jonathan’s first big episode occurred in Season 3. After fighting and killing a demon, Buffy developed the ability to hear everyone’s thoughts. At first she quite enjoyed listening to everyone’s guilty little secrets, but she soon began to realize the cons of her new powers.

This lead to Buffy confronting a rifle-toting Jonathan in the clock tower. Initially, Buffy thought he was going to kill everyone, but it was revealed that Jonathan felt so lonely and ignored that he just wanted to take his own life, which was tragic.

3 Hated: When The First Evil Took His Form

Okay, so this wasn’t technically Jonathan’s doing per se, but it was still his appearance and his voice. In Season 7, the Scooby Gang faced off against their most powerful Big Bad yet: the First Evil. The First could take the appearance of anyone who was dead.

By this time, Jonathan had been murdered by his friend Andrew in order to open the seal. However, when Andrew defected to the Scoobies, the First tried to tempt him back to the dark side by posing as Jonathan, who said all kinds of scary and horrific stuff.

2 Felt Bad: When He Was Killed

Jonathan was actually fairly lucky in Buffy The Vampire Slayer as he managed to last six seasons without dying. Unfortunately, his journey came to an end in Season 7. He and Andrew had escaped Willow’s pursuit of revenge and traveled to Mexico.

While they were there, they heard a voice. Jonathan persuaded Andrew to come back to Sunnydale with him to warn Buffy, but while they were there, Andrew stabbed his friend and let Jonathan bleed to death. Jonathan had finally found his purpose in the world, only to die soon after.

1 Hated – When He Helped To Cover Up Katrina’s Death

Katrina was Warren’s ex-girlfriend. When the Trio invented a mind-control device, Warren used it on Katrina and was about to compel her to have sex with him. But Katrina awoke and resisted Warren, who then smashed a bottle over her head, killing her instantly.

While this might not have been Jonathan’s fault, he was still complicit in covering up her murder, using his magic to fool Buffy into thinking that she was the killer. Not only did Jonathan help Warren cover up a despicable crime, he also pinned the blame on an already depressed Buffy.

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